1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to data processing systems and, in particular, to real-time scanning of files by anti-virus software. Still more particularly, the present invention provides a method and system for checking for viruses by adding a virus scanning capability to the peripheral storage controller or data transfer controllers in a data processing system.
2. Description of Related Art
The increased utilization of computers and other electronic communications devices at home, in businesses, and between businesses has expanded dramatically as a result of a similar expansion in the amount of software and information available. Examples of different types of software include word processors, spreadsheet programs, Web design programs, and anti-virus programs.
With the rise of the Internet, the exchange of information between different users has grown significantly. As communication between different users has grown, so too has the proliferation of virus programs grown. Thus, the utilization of anti-virus programs to protect the integrity of computer systems has become commonplace. However, anti-virus programs require a large amount of central processing (CPU) usage to run. The programs also heavily tax busses, such as the small computer systems interface (SCSI) bus, the IDE bus, etc. when scanning the files. Particularly, in a World Wide Web environment, where service providers and consumers meet to conduct business, the need to constantly protect the integrity of the data processing system against threats from virus programs imposes a large cost in both efficiency and overhead, especially for large data centers.
Therefore, it would be advantageous to have an improved method, apparatus, and computer program product for providing real-time virus scanning.